


Bold and Brave

by nagi_schwarz



Series: The Oppenheimer Effect [3]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6657073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: <i>Any, any(or/any), white puffy clouds</i>. </p><p>After the picnic, John and Rodney watch the clouds and ponder what's down the road.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bold and Brave

“So...are your housemates still hiding in the bushes?” Rodney was drowsy from the afternoon warmth, a belly full of delicious food, and Oppenheimer sprawled across his lap. He was lying on the blanket beside John, both of them gazing up at the puffy white clouds.  
  
“Hm? Oh, no, Evan probably dragged JD back to the van, where they’re exchanging gossipy text messages with Cam.” John didn’t sound at all alarmed. Instead, he pointed to the sky. “I think that one looks kind of like a whale.”  
  
Rodney shuddered. “Urgh. Whales. My father read me _Moby Dick_ when I was a kid, and I had nightmares about whales for...ever.”  
  
John turned to look at him. “Really? That sounds like a terrible choice for a bedtime story.”  
  
“I’m not sure he meant it in the traditional sense of a bedtime story.”  
  
“My dad never read us bedtime stories,” John said. “He wanted us to read good books, so I got introduced to the classics early, but our nanny always read us fun stuff. _Peter Pan_. ‘S why I wanted to fly.”  
  
Rodney was startled by that brief bit of honesty and sentimentality, but he had the sense that John wasn’t usually that open, so he bit back the comment on the tip of his tongue, about J.M. Barrie’s deviant predilection for little boys. “Flying does sound fun.”  
  
“One of the greatest feelings in the world.” John rolled onto his side, peered at Rodney. “So, was I too forward? Tricking you into a date is seriously uncool, I know.”  
  
“Well, it wasn’t entirely a trick. You didn’t lure me here under entirely false pretenses,” Rodney said. “I mean, you did intend to give my cat back, didn’t you?”  
  
“If you don’t want him back, I think Cam’s pretty attached,” John said, “but no, of course I intend to give him back. I have his cat supplies in the van, just in case. Never hurts to have a back-up. He never used the bed we got him, though. He tends to take naps...on people. Usually JD. Kid’s like a cat himself, with how much he sleeps.”  
  
JD. Who was really Jack O’Neill in a second skin.  
  
Rodney decided if John could be bold, he could be bold. “Why don’t you keep the cat supplies? In case Oppie ever needs to stay with you again.”  
  
John’s smile was brilliant and bright. “Okay. That works.”  
  
Rodney gazed at him and wondered how he’d gotten this lucky.  
  
“So, how brave are you feeling?” John asked.  
  
“Why do you ask?”  
  
“The others want to meet you.”  
  
Rodney didn’t remember Major Lorne, had only heard Cam Mitchell’s name whispered in passing, with a sort of sympathetic reverence. As for JD -  
  
“Not right away, like, right this second,” John said. “Just, you know, someday. Down the road.”  
  
“There’s a ‘down the road’ for us?” Rodney raised his eyebrows.  
  
“Won’t know till we try, will we?” John rolled onto his back. “In the meantime, what do you think of that one?”  
  
“I think it looks kind of like...a kind of Saturn.”  
  
“The planet, or the car?”  
  
“The planet, obviously. I swear, if you follow that up with a Uranus joke, I’m pushing you off this blanket.”  
  
“I was about to go for a Venus joke, actually, but if you’re going to be like that, I won’t.”  
  
Rodney laughed softly, and John joined in, and just when Rodney thought he couldn’t be any happier, John reached out and curled his fingers through Rodney’s, and they lay there, looking at the clouds.


End file.
